Brazil Bans Online Betting – What MP 1.394 Does and Whether It Survives

Brazil Bans Online Betting – What MP 1.394 Does and Whether It Survives

On September 25, 2026, President Lula signed Provisional Measure 1.394 and banned fixed-odds betting across Brazil – sports betting and online casino alike. Eleven days later, every licensed site went dark. A BRL 37 billion regulated market, built in under two years, now depends on Congress and the Supreme Court.

Key Takeaways

• MP 1.394 bans all fixed-odds betting and online casino games in Brazil.
• Deposits stopped September 25; licensed sites went offline October 6.
• Licences expire October 25 with no compensation announced for operators.
• Licensed brand demand fell 89% in the first week; offshore share jumped sixfold.
• The MP lapses around March 2027 unless Congress converts it into law.

What MP 1.394 Actually Does

A provisional measure (medida provisória) is a presidential decree with the force of law from the day it is published. It takes effect immediately, but Congress must convert it into law or it expires. MP 1.394 amends Law 14,790/2023 – the same law Lula's government signed in December 2023 to create the regulated market we covered in our report on Brazil's first licensed year.

The text prohibits the operation, offer, intermediation and advertising of fixed-odds betting nationwide, in physical or virtual form. Four details matter most:

• Scope: sports betting and online casino games (slots, crash, live dealer) are both covered.
• Offshore operators: the ban explicitly includes operators based abroad that offer bets to people in Brazil.
• State licences: concessions granted by states and the Federal District are extinguished too.
• Exclusions: other lottery products authorised by law – including Caixa's federal lotteries – are untouched.

The measure also creates an inter-institutional committee to police illegal betting and its advertising. Its explanatory memorandum bars banks and payment institutions from processing betting transactions, and law firm analyses point to Central Bank Resolution BCB 590/2026 as the implementing rule. The government framed the ban around household debt and gambling addiction, and launched it alongside a new round of its Desenrola debt-renegotiation programme.

The Shutdown Timeline – 30 Days From Licence to Nothing

The Ministry of Finance's Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) published the wind-down schedule on October 2. It moved faster than most operators expected. We pulled the dates directly from the ministry's guidance page.

Early press coverage reported conflicting refund deadlines – October 5 in some outlets, October 14 in others. Both were right. October 5 was the self-service withdrawal cutoff; October 9–14 was the bank-led sweep of whatever balances players left behind.

What Happened to the Licensed Operators

Brazil sold licences at BRL 30 million each. One industry tally counts 85 licences worth roughly BRL 2.55 billion in total, and a separate count puts the number of affected brands at 188, of which 125 had no other market to fall back on. No refund or compensation scheme has been announced.

The demand collapse was immediate. Search-demand tracker Blask Index measured licensed brands at -89% in the week of October 2–8 versus the September average:

Betano is the most exposed. Blask estimates Brazil produced USD 1.88 billion of Betano's consumer spend from January to September – 51.6% of the brand's worldwide total. bet365's Brazilian share was 15.8%. Betano's operator, Kaizen Gaming, has guaranteed its Brazilian staff their jobs until Congress votes on the MP.

The wider workforce has not been so lucky. The National Association of Games and Lotteries (ANJL) counted about 3,500 dismissals by October 7 – roughly 23% of the sector's workforce – plus 4,167 workers on collective leave. ANJL projects layoffs could reach 5,600 within 90 days. Suppliers absorbed the first cuts, including a Curitiba call centre that dropped 500 staff.

Football Loses Its Biggest Sponsor

Brazilian football was the single largest beneficiary of the regulated market. Before the MP, 14 of 20 Série A clubs carried a betting brand on their shirts, 13 of them as master sponsor. Consultancy Convocados puts betting sponsorship of Série A at BRL 1.03 billion in 2025, up from BRL 618 million in 2024.

That money covered roughly 33% of clubs' commercial revenue, even though it was only around 7% of total turnover. Superbet, Betano and Esportes da Sorte have already notified clubs that contracts are being terminated or suspended. No government support package for clubs has been announced, which is why at least 11 of the congressional amendments try to keep sports betting alive in some form.

The Offshore Question – Where Brazilian Bettors Go Now

The core risk of any ban is that demand moves rather than disappears. Before the MP, licensed platforms handled only 38–44% of online bets in the first half of 2026, according to Instituto Locomotiva – the grey market never went away, despite 18,000+ domain blocks in the regulated era.

Early signals point the same way. Blask measured offshore brand demand roughly flat after the ban, at 200,000–300,000 daily searches, while the offshore share of all betting demand rose from 3–5% to 20–29%. That share jump mostly reflects licensed demand collapsing. Inside the offshore pool, Melbet's demand nearly quadrupled and 22bet's more than doubled.

Enforcement is scaling to match. The Ministry of Justice reported 16,627 illegal betting sites identified and sent for blocking by October 9. ANJL's LegitBet monitor saw suspicious betting links rise from 77 a day before the MP to 549 a day in the first week of October – roughly a sevenfold increase. An industry-commissioned estimate from IBJR puts the potential illegal market at up to BRL 30 billion in 2026, though that number comes from the side lobbying to reverse the ban.

The Legal Fight – STF and Congress

The ban faces two separate tests. Either one could reverse or reshape it.

The Supreme Federal Court (STF). On October 2, ANJL and the Instituto Brasileiro de Jogo Responsável (IBJR) petitioned Justice Luiz Fux – already rapporteur of the eight pending cases on the 2023 betting law – to suspend the MP. Press reports also cite direct constitutional challenges from ANJL (ADI 8027) and Anseja (ADI 8024). Their core argument: there was no genuine urgency to justify a provisional measure that ends five-year licences in 30 days. As a fallback, they asked for a transition of at least six months. Fux gave the Attorney General's Office (AGU) 72 hours to respond. The AGU defended the MP and asked Fux to wait for the Prosecutor General's opinion. As of mid-October, Fux had not ruled.

Congress. A joint committee of 13 deputies and 13 senators was designated on September 30. The amendment window closed on October 13 with close to 100 proposals filed. Several would keep sports betting and ban only online casino – effectively reversing the scope back to Lula's original March proposal.

An MP is valid for 60 days, extendable once by another 60. The clock pauses during the congressional recess (late December to early February), which is why Brazilian press puts the real expiry around March 2027. If Congress doesn't vote by then, the MP lapses – but licences extinguished on October 25 would not automatically come back.

Brazil vs India – Two Bans, Thirteen Months Apart

Brazil is the second major market to wipe out legal online gambling in just over a year. India's real-money gaming ban took effect on August 22, 2025, and the comparison shows how differently the two were built.

India's experience is the best guide to what comes next. Branded search for Indian operators fell by about a third, but traffic to offshore sites held steady. Search-based trackers understate offshore play once it moves, so Brazil's Blask numbers are best read as a floor.

The bigger signal for the region is precedent. Brazil's .bet.br model was copied almost line-for-line by Peru, and its Pix-driven growth was the headline case for why LatAm players behave so differently from Europe's. If the region's biggest regulated market can be shut down by decree in 30 days, every LatAm licence now carries political risk that wasn't priced in a year ago.

What We're Watching

Four dates and decisions will decide where this lands.

• Fux's ruling on the suspension request – any day.
• October 25 – the formal extinction of all authorisations.
• The joint committee report, which will show whether a sports-betting carve-out has the votes.
• March 2027 – the effective deadline for Congress to convert the MP.

We'll update this report as each one lands.

FAQ

Is online betting illegal in Brazil now?

Yes. Since September 25, 2026, MP 1.394 prohibits offering, operating, intermediating or advertising fixed-odds betting and online casino games in Brazil, including by operators based abroad. Licensed sites went offline on October 6. Federal and state lotteries authorised by law are not affected.

What happens to money I had on a betting site?

You could withdraw it yourself until October 5 at 23:59. After that, operators had to report your balance to your bank, which refunded it to your original deposit account between October 9 and 14. If your refund didn't arrive, Caixa Econômica Federal handles unresolved cases from October 15.

Can the ban be reversed?

Yes, in two ways. The Supreme Federal Court could suspend it – Justice Fux is considering a request from industry groups. Or Congress could amend or reject it. If Congress doesn't vote, the MP lapses around March 2027, though cancelled licences would not automatically return.

Is it legal to use offshore casinos from Brazil?

The MP targets operators, not players, but it explicitly bans foreign operators from offering bets to people in Brazil. Any offshore site accepting Brazilians is acting illegally, and you'd have no SPA protection, no CPF-linked refund process, and increasingly blocked payment routes.

Does the ban include sports betting?

Yes. Lula's March 2026 proposal focused on online casinos, but MP 1.394 covers all fixed-odds betting, including sports. Several of the roughly 100 amendments in Congress would restore sports betting and ban only online casino.

Sources

[1] Ministério da Fazenda – MP 1.394/2026: entenda as novas regras – https://www.gov.br/fazenda/pt-br/composicao/orgaos/secretaria-de-premios-e-apostas/medida-provisoria-ndeg-1-394-2026-entenda-as-novas-regras-para-as-apostas-de-quota-fixa

[2] Câmara dos Deputados – Medida Provisória nº 1.394, de 25 de setembro de 2026 – https://www2.camara.leg.br/legin/fed/medpro/2026/medidaprovisoria-1394-25-setembro-2026-800020-exposicaodemotivos-181492-pe.html

[3] Congresso Nacional – MPV 1394/2026 – https://www.congressonacional.leg.br/materias/medidas-provisorias/-/mpv/175871

[4] Chambers – Governo Federal proíbe as apostas de quota fixa e lança o Desenrola Brasil 3.0 – https://chambers.com/articles/governo-federal-pro%C3%ADbe-as-apostas-de-quota-fixa-e-lan%C3%A7a-o-desenrola-brasil-3-0

[5] TheGamblest – Brazil's offshore demand held after the ban (Blask Index) – https://www.thegamblest.com/brazils-offshore-demand-held-after-the-ban-now-it-is-changing-hands/

[6] TheGamblest – 188 operators shut down in Brazil, 125 had no other market – https://www.thegamblest.com/188-operators-shut-down-in-brazil-125-had-no-other-market/

[7] SBC News – Kaizen Gaming commits to staff in Brazil amid betting ban – https://sbcnews.co.uk/sportsbook/2026/10/14/kaizen-gaming-commits-to-brazil

[8] BNLData – Betting companies lay off workers after government veto – https://bnldata.com.br/en/bets-demitem-apos-veto-do-governo-36-empresas-cortam-funcionarios/

[9] Yogonet – Patrocínios de bets cobriam mais de três meses de salários dos clubes da Série A – https://www.yogonet.com/brasil/noticias/2026/10/15/10587-patrocinios-de-bets-cobriam-mais-de-tres-meses-de-salarios-dos-clubes-da-serie-a

[10] Yogonet – Mercado ilegal de apostas cresce sete vezes após proibição das bets – https://www.yogonet.com/brasil/noticias/2026/10/15/10584-mercado-ilegal-de-apostas-cresce-sete-vezes-apos-proibicao-das-bets-aponta-monitoramento

[11] Agência Brasil – AGU pede a Fux que aguarde PGR e mantenha proibição das bets – https://agenciabrasil.ebc.com.br/justica/noticia/2026-10/agu-pede-fux-que-aguarde-pgr-e-mantenha-proibicao-das-bets-no-pais

[12] BNLData – Amendment deadline ends, Fux remains silent, illegal market advances – https://bnldata.com.br/en/semana-decisiva-para-a-mp-das-bets-prazo-de-emendas-termina-fux-segue-em-silencio-e-mercado-ilegal-avanca/

[13] Correio da Manhã – MP que proíbe bets pode perder validade em março de 2027 – https://www.correiodamanha.com.br/politica/2026/09/322903-mp-que-proibe-bets-pode-perder-validade-em-marco-de-2027.html

[14] Migalhas – Advogado analisa restituições e extinção das bets até fim de outubro – https://www.migalhas.com.br/quentes/466383/advogado-analisa-restituicoes-e-extincao-das-bets-ate-fim-de-outubro